The use of luggage items, primarily backpacks, is known in the prior art. Traditionally, backpacks and other transportable baggage have been made primarily of water-resistant material such as polythene to protect the pack and its contents from water, wind, dirt and other natural elements. The water-resistant luggage items have allowed users to not only store and protect various items without being exposed to natural elements, but to also maintain a guarded sense of privacy. Other conventional backpacks have included luggage products that are generally manufactured using perishable materials (such as leather) where the durability of the pack depends on the amount of weather exposure. Although these luggage items tend to be more aesthetically pleasing to a general user, the items tend to have a higher rate of deterioration when exposed to any natural element.
Backpacks and other luggage items have recently evolved to incorporate devices with audio components. An example of such a backpack is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,152 to Trevino issued on Apr. 25, 1995 depicting a Backpack Assembly with Audio Components. Specifically, the backpack assembly holds audio components within a plurality of pockets formed interiorly of the pack. One of the plurality of pockets is sized to hold a speaker therein and a second of the plurality of pockets is sized to hold a radio therein.
However, due to changing educational policies throughout the United States, many school districts have enacted programs where backpacks must be see-through to ensure increased school security. The result has been to enforce rules that require backpacks to be made with materials that permit clear visibility of the inside contents of the backpack. To enable compliance with the new policies and fulfill this new market, several manufacturers are now producing backpacks that are either made of clear material or of net- or mesh type material.
Specifically, the net-type backpack is made of material having holes uniformly dispersed on the front and sides of the backpack itself. Although this particular material has solved the security requirement mandated by the school districts, an elemental exposure problem has arisen. For example, on a day of rain, all contents (including electronics) contained inside the backpack are subject to rainwater. Likewise, on a day of strong winds, backpack contents are subject to dust and dirt. Therefore, the net-type backpack has introduced elemental exposure and increased deterioration to a luggage item and its contents.
Conventionally constructed luggage and the '152 backpack do not normally pose an exposure problem, but they do not conform to the new security policies and their use has been eliminated in many circumstances. Further, similar to the conventional luggage items, the '152 backpack assembly fails to provide for an incorporated protective cover such as a backpack cover contained within the luggage item itself. Thus, when nature's elements (such as rain, snow, sun, wind or dirt) come into contact with the backpack, the material of the backpack may be damaged. Further, radios, speakers, tape players, CD players and any other type of device installed in the backpack may also be damaged or destroyed by exposure. Also, depending on the type of material used for the luggage, the useful life of the material may be shortened due to weather exposure and deterioration.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with the use of more recently designed luggage items, and especially backpacks that are constructed from weather permeable materials, the present invention has been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and enhance the utility of these and more conventionally designed luggage pieces. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.